McNiven was part of a three-way battle for ice time with Fucale and Charlie Lindgren at the AHL level last season. While Fucale was the only member of the trio with a winning record at Laval, the Canadiens decided Lindgren and McNiven had more potential.

McNiven, who is scheduled to start Sunday when the Canadiens face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the final game of the Rookie Showdown at Place Bell (3 p.m., TSN-690 Radio), said he’s looking forward to building on his first pro season.

“At some point, I want to be the starter in Laval, if not in the NHL,” McNiven said following a practice at the Canadiens’ training facility in Brossard. “I’ll probably be starting where I left off last season (but) I’ve had the best summer, starting in the gym, eating right. I learned a lot last season in my first year of pro and in the summer I want to bring that to the table.”

McNiven started last season with the Brampton Beast in the ECHL, but saw little action because the Canadiens shared the farm team with Ottawa, and most of the work went to the Senators’ goalies. He joined Laval before Christmas and had mixed results.

His numbers — a 6-16-1 record with a 3.50 goals-against average and an .884 save percentage — were not good. Then again, Laval wasn’t a very good team. McNiven made a good impression with his mobility and his athleticism and former coach Sylvain Lefebvre turned to him as Lindgren’s backup.

“When they called me up, the coach showed confidence in me,” McNiven said. “For my first year of pro as a 20-year-old, I think I played pretty good and I have to continue that.”

Asked if the losing weighed on him, McNiven replied: “Of course, it does. At the same time, no matter what happens, you have to keep quiet and approach every day the same. Every second of your life is devoted to being a pro hockey player. You can’t change your focus because you’ve had a bad season. You keep some things, you forget others and you hope for a better outcome.”

McNiven is a bit of a rarity. After he wasn’t drafted in 2015, the Canadiens invited him to their summer development camp. His performance there led to an invite to the rookie camp in September and Montreal thought enough of him to sign him to an entry-level deal rather than taking the chance another team would select him in the 2016 draft.

McNiven finished his career with the Owen Sound Attack as the top goaltender in major junior hockey, but said the jump to the pro level was an eye-opener.

“It’s totally different, it involved everything in life,” McNiven said. “Work out, eat right, stay fit. Everything you have to do to be a good pro. The learning curve was hard sometime and easy on other things.

“I was living in a hotel for 2 1/2 months and I had to go out to eat every day and make sure I was choosing the right things,” McNiven said. “When I got my own place, I was cooking my own meals and it was definitely an eye-opener. It got easier as time went on. It’s going to be the same this season, but I’ll have that experience from last season, and right off the bat I’ll have a place to live and get comfortable.”

Laval coach Joël Bouchard, whose relationship with McNiven goes back to the time he invited the goaltender to the national junior team camp, noted McNiven has lost some weight and is in better shape.

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